Swim meet at BU

'Cross season ended, and a week later, I got a cold. Then one week after that we had the New England Short Course Meters Masters Championship at the BU pool. I was sick enough that I missed several practices leading up to the meet and felt totally unprepared.

Ed's mom was coming out to take care of Elliot on Sunday (12/12), but he came with us to the pool on Saturday. I thought he would get bored after a few hours, so I only signed up for a few events in the morning.

Foggy lens due to temp change from car to the deck of the pool. :) For contrast, here's Elliot at the same meet last year.



Inevitably, someone scratched though and I ended up staying later and swimming breaststroke on a mixed relay team in mid-afternoon. Our coach "wore" Elliot in his carrier so Ed and I wouldn't have to do a quick handoff during the relays. I wish I had a photo. Elliot loves Coach Rich.



Are these track suits more Royal Tenenbaums or Sue Sylvester?



Ed kindly made this so we could keep track of our events.



Ed and I both swam lots of events, making up for our relative lack of swimming skill with lots of volume. There were a lot fewer people at this meet than at the one we did at Harvard in the spring, so events were much closer together and we didn't have much time to rest. I was hoping to PR in all my events but only did it in the a few (but Ed kept up his streak of PRs).

I was really dragging by the time I got to my last individual event, the 400 IM. My teammates all stood around and cheered for more than 8 minutes as I completed the event at roughly half the pace of the reigning world record holder. Amazingly though, I got first place points, as there were no other women in my age group swimming the 400 IM. I then proceeded to almost miss the final relay, which I didn't realize was right after. Oops! I made it through my part (I think it was a 50 breast).

Everyone on the team contributed great swims and our team was the highest scoring large workout group at the meet!

We celebrated the team's win with the traditional dunking of the head coach.



This award plaque is so shiny that it is illegible. Big Al, the team captain, will be wearing this as a belt buckle at the Minuteman winter party.



Merry Christmas from the Royal Tenenbaums!

The end of 'cross season

December disappeared -- multiple (minor) illnesses, lots of missed days of work, family visits, holidays, construction on the house... I feel like I'm still trying to get back into my normal routine. I'm finally starting to work on getting caught up with the blog.

First up: the end of 'cross season. I did my last two races, Shedd Park (Lowell) and Sterling, at the end of November. The season continued for a few weeks beyond that, but I was so exhausted that I decided to pull the plug after Sterling. I ended up doing 10 races total.

The Shedd Park race was a small 1/2/3 race. I hadn't been able to race the previous two weekends (didn't want to travel to Noho and was sick and DNS'd at Plymouth), so I was a bit nervous. I fueled up with a yummy chocolate chip cookie made by my teammate Robert a few minutes before the start.



I felt like I got a decent start on the cinder track, but I soon realized that I was last, as usual. I surprised myself by being able to pull ahead of a few people and rode a clean race to finish 12th out of 15. I think we ended up doing 5 laps. I was so cross-eyed up the very steep hill where my friend Andy (of Waffle Cross) was doing waffle handups (and someone else was doing 4Loco handups) that I couldn't find him.



I almost got the waffle on the 4th lap but didn't quite make it. Fortunately the Wheelworkers had a tent set up so I could get one later.

Here's someone in the men's 1/2/3 field who had more success than I did with the waffles.



The following weekend, I was pre-reged for both days of Sterling. It was a UCI race so I was in the 3/4 field. This tweet pretty much sums up the situation: "Elliot's (maybe?) finally teething, lost the acetaminophen, 1130pm CVS run. Sometimes my mom life is not compatible with my cyclocross life." (Indeed, he was teething.) I ended up skipping the first day but made it out for the second. I got to the venue super early to pre-ride and took note of a blind, unrideable dropoff very soon after the start. Many of the women didn't get a chance to pre-ride so I asked Richard Fries, the announcer, to tell everyone about it. (Yes, I am such a mom now.) He was super accomodating and even walked over to the spot and stood in it. No one crashed there (unlike many of the other fields).

I much prefer the small 1/2/3 races, which afford me lots of personal space. The 3/4 UCI races are more crowded and I get a little tentative at the start. I was not very aggressive off the line and ended up riding near a bunch of women I'd never seen before, so I assumed I was doing pretty poorly. At one point, the Tiny Russian was cheering for me and I smiled. She said, "If you are smiling, you are not riding hard enough!" I moved up a bit in the middle and ended up finishing about where crossresults.com predicted, much to my surprise. I was beyond tired and realized that as much fun as I was having, it was time to stop racing for the season.

I hung around for a while and took photos. The ground was frozen for my race but thawed and got sloppy as the day wore on.



Here's the masters 1/2/3 field going through an especially twisty section.



I ended up racing a lot more this fall than I planned, mostly because of my awesome team. Hup United made it so much fun to be out there almost every weekend. I don't miss road racing much -- I think I got my fill over 11 seasons -- but I can't wait for 'cross next fall!

Thanksgiving

As I mentioned earlier, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our family in Connecticut. We had so much fun. And we really have so much to be grateful for this year!

Elliot really enjoyed all the food. Yum. My MIL is a wonderful cook.



I took family photos. Here's one of all of us:



My MIL put up her Christmas lights early. They looked wonderful.



I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!

Happy birthday, Elliot!

I can't believe it's already been a year. We celebrated with Ed's family after Thanksgiving dinner and again with local friends yesterday.

Grandma (Ed's mom) made Elliot a bear cake using the same mold she used for birthdays when Ed and his sisters were kids. So cool!



Elliot got many lovely, thoughful gifts. Here is a tricycle from Aunt Paige and Uncle Kevin that he's already taken outside several times.



Yesterday we had high tea, which was so fun that we might have to do it for other birthdays as well. (Probably mine or Ed's -- I assume by next year, Elliot will have other ideas of what constitutes a fun party.)



Elliot loved his cake! He ate a little and threw a lot of it all over the place.



We got him a recycling truck for his birthday, since his favorite toys are the wheels on the stroller and articles in our recycling bin.



The year has been a blur -- sleep deprivation will do that to you -- but it has been amazing. Ed and I have had so much fun and can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Visit from Popo and Grandpa Roy

Mom (Popo) and Grandpa Roy came to visit last week. Elliot loved all the attention!



Popo entertained Elliot while I did some work, but he occasionally came to check on me.



We ate a lot...



Mom and Roy helped Ed rake up all the leaves in the yard.

On our last day, we took some photos in a local park. We had a great time!!

Canton and Orchard CX

I raced twice last weekend, in Canton MA and Hampton Falls NH. The races were somewhat similar and a very busy week has passed since then, so they get one entry.

Both races had super long courses that provided extensive tours of the grounds of the Massachusetts Hospital School and Applecrest Farm Orchards, respectively. This helped me to not get lapped in the 1/2/3 field on either day, but made it difficult for spectators to watch anything. In both, my crossresults.com points had me seeded second from last and I indeed finished second from last on both days.

Differences: I underinflated my new tires (Vittoria XG tubies) for Canton, which led to some sliding out in the turns, but with Ed's help, got the pressure dialed in for Orchard. I have a long way to go, but my turning is improving. I went to Canton solo and brought Ed and Elliot along for Orchard, since there was a fall farm festival going on. Also, I got surprised at Orchard by $20 prize money for finishing 9th -- they were paying 10 deep even though there were only 10 starters. Woohoo!

Some pics from Canton, both of which I showed at my photography class last Tuesday:

The Boston 'Cross barriers are still in service! Aperture priority is my friend.



Jonny Bold just after the previously pictured barrier. I played around with the aperture and ISO a bit and was pleased to get this to come out just the way I planned.



Orchard CX:

Here, Elliot meets his first sheep at the petting zoo at Applecrest Farms.



These pics of me are by Brent Doscher. Nice use of a wide-angle lens.

Pumpkin by Ed, photo by Michele